Linear TV used to reign supreme. But in the past decade, TV viewing has shifted to streaming. EMARKETER has named 2025 the year that streaming surpasses linear viewing for the first time.
But a simple platform trade isn't the whole story. What people watch is changing, too. Gen Z and Millennial generations have been contributing to this shift quite a bit. These generations are moving away from premium TV and movie content while social media, including leading streamer YouTube, is growing.
Whether in a social feed or on a streaming platform, younger generations like creator content, with roughly 50% of Gen Zers and Millennials preferring to consumer content from creators on social media than TV personalitied or actors because they feel a stronger connection to creators (Deloitte).
New Consumer notes: "In our survey, 35% of Gen Z consumers said they'd pick YouTube on the deserted island, its highest percentage among generations. (This was also Netflix's lowest-scoring generation, at 17%; TikTok actually came in above it with Gen Z, at 19%.)"
Taking a look at the NBA finals, game viewership has been down 9% for local linear audiences compared to the regular season. But streaming numbers rose 30% (Sports Business Journal).
About a third of NBA viewers are under 35 years old (S&P Global). Additionally, younger generations tend to scroll on social media, really utilizing that second screen, while watching games (and TV in general).
As of 2023, 74% of Gen Z and 65% of millennials followed sports on social. And, 23% of Gen Z actually preferred to watch game highlights on social media instead of watching the games live (GWI). And individual players like LeBron James and Stef Curry command billions of views on social platforms (NBA). These major players in the NBA act as influencers.
The good news is that with Spaceback, you can bring both sports and creator content to streaming platforms as social ad creative, giving audiences the best of both worlds. By using our platform, you can upload videos such as creator collaborations with brands or sports highlights by pasting the URL into the platform. From there, you can further customize the creative.
Ultimately, Spaceback will retain all the social aspects to make this feel authentically social. That includes the number of likes, comments, views, and shares; brand profile information; brand profile photo; and more. The result is a premium ad that brings vertical video to the TV screen seamlessly.
In just a few minutes, you can build a premium 4K Social CTV ad on Spaceback's CTV Launchpad platform. For more information on performance of creator content on the big screen with Spaceback, check out our Corkcicle and Primally Pure case studies.
